Google to pay Sonos $32.5 mn in smart-speaker patent case, guidelines US jury

Alphabet Inc’s Google should pay $32.5 million in damages for infringing certainly one of smart-speaker maker Sonos Inc’s patents in its wi-fi audio gadgets, a San Francisco federal jury selected Friday.

The case is a part of a sprawling mental property dispute between the previous collaborators that features different lawsuits within the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The firms beforehand labored collectively to combine Mountain View, California-based Google’s streaming music service into Sonos merchandise. Sonos first sued Google for patent infringement in Los Angeles and on the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2020, accusing the tech big of copying its know-how throughout their collaboration in gadgets together with Google Home and Chromecast Audio.

Sonos final 12 months received a restricted import ban on some Google gadgets from the ITC, which Google has appealed.

Google has countered with its personal patent lawsuits in California and on the ITC, accusing Sonos of incorporating the tech firm’s know-how into its good audio system. Sonos has known as Google’s lawsuits an “intimidation tactic” to “grind down a smaller competitor.”

Santa Barbara, California-based Sonos misplaced almost one-fifth of its market valuation earlier this month after chopping its income forecast.

The jury discovered Google infringed certainly one of Sonos’ two patents at challenge within the trial. Sonos had beforehand requested the court docket for $90 million in damages, a request Google mentioned in a court docket submitting that Sonos had lowered from $3 billion after U.S. District Judge William Alsup narrowed the case.

A Google spokesperson mentioned on Friday the case was a “narrow dispute about some very specific features that are not commonly used,” and that the corporate was contemplating its subsequent steps. Google additionally mentioned it has “always developed technology independently and competed on the merit of our ideas.”

A Sonos spokesperson mentioned the decision “re-affirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio.”